


Run, Rabbit, Run

by PR Zed (przed)



Category: Blade Runner (1982), The Professionals
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crossover, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-28
Updated: 2014-01-28
Packaged: 2018-01-10 08:07:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1157163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/przed/pseuds/PR%20Zed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I didn't even notice I was doing it.  There was paper and my hands were idle and before I knew it, I was folding one of the shapes I knew so well.</p>
<p>"When did you learn to do that?"</p>
<p>I hadn't heard Doyle come into the kitchen, but that was no surprise.  He was quieter than some of the trackers I'd worked with in Africa, quiet in a way that only one of his kind can be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Run, Rabbit, Run

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2014 [picfor1000](http://picfor1000.livejournal.com) challenge, for [**this prompt**](http://www.flickr.com/photos/51122793@N04/7042121173/).
> 
> Thanks to m. butterfly for making sure all my t's were crossed, and to [moonlightmead](http://archiveofourown.org/users/moonlightmead/pseuds/ML%20Mead) for the inspiration.

I didn't even notice I was doing it. There was paper and my hands were idle and before I knew it, I was folding one of the shapes I knew so well.

"When did you learn to do that?"

I hadn't heard Doyle come into the kitchen, but that was no surprise. He was quieter than some of the trackers I'd worked with in Africa, quiet in a way that only one of his kind can be.

"Murphy taught me," I said without looking up. "He got sent to Los Angeles a few years ago to clean up a mess there. The bloke he got partnered with was always folding little animals out of paper. He taught Murph, and Murph taught me when we were stuck for a week on the world's most boring obbo."

I didn't mention what the mess had been.

"It was a total cock up," Murphy had told me. "A blade runner took off with a replicant, his partner let them go, and no one knew if the thing had a termination date."

I creased the last fold with my fingernail, blew into my creation, and set it on the table.

"What is it?" Doyle padded silently around the room and sat down across from me, never taking his eyes off the origami creature in front of me. "A cat?"

"It's meant to be a rabbit."

"Oh," Doyle said, his eyes narrowed as he examined my little hare. He picked it up carefully and held it, inspecting each fold.

I wondered if he'd ever seen a rabbit. Or a cat, for that matter. I've been told there are still wild rabbits in some parts of the countryside, though I've never seen one. And I've only ever seen cats when I've been working in the posher parts of the city. Who but the rich could afford one of the creatures? But Doyle had been off world. What wonders had he seen, out there in the stars?

Doyle carefully returned the paper rabbit to the table, then sat back and stared at me, his green eyes more like a cat's than I was comfortable with.

His eyes were what had done me in.

I'd been minding my own business at a certain bar in Soho, one where I drank, but never pulled. Look but don't touch, that was the rule I lived by. The rule the job insisted on. But then he'd sat beside me, all slanted eyes and unruly hair, and I'd known I'd break every rule there was for him.

Love at first sight. Stupid of me, I know, but there you go.

It was good for a month. My days off, we'd spend at his place. This place. Never went out but once, and that time we'd had the bad luck to run into Murphy at my local.

"Does Cowley know?" Murph had asked when Doyle had gone to the bar for the next round.

I'd shaken my head.

"Well, it's your funeral," he'd said, then drained his pint and left with a wink.

We'd kept to Doyle's flat after that.

But then had come the day, yesterday, when Cowley had summoned us to his office to give us a new assignment.

"This one slipped under the radar," he said as he laid a picture in front of us. "It was a research model, designed for hazardous off-world experiments. Unknown termination date. It disappeared two months ago, but the head of the lab only reported it yesterday. Embarrassed, I suppose."

The picture was of a male replicant, appearing in his mid-thirties, all slanted eyes and unruly hair. Doyle.

I locked down my emotions and managed not to react. But Murphy raised his eyebrows, and Cowley, the canny old bastard, noticed his reaction.

"Have you seen it?" Cowley asked him.

"No, sir," Murphy said quickly. "Just reminds me off someone I went to school with."

I could barely breathe for the rest of the meeting, trying to avoid looking as shaken as I felt.

Once we were in the hovercar, Murphy looked at me with curiosity.

"What are you going to do?"

"Dunno."

"Hmmm." Murphy was quiet for a minute before he spoke again. "Did I ever tell you what happened to that bloke in Los Angeles? The one who let his partner escape?"

"No."

"Drummed out of the service, in the end. Had to resort to private detective work."

"Is that right?"

"Yeah." He gripped the controls tighter and tapped his thumb as he drew closer to this block of flats. "I fancy a bit of private detective work. No more Cowley to report to." Then he grinned at me, and I knew Murph wasn't going to be a problem.

Doyle, though, he was definitely a problem. He looked across the table at me like he knew everything about me.

"Do you know what I am?" he asked.

"Yeah." _Replicant_. "Do you know what I am?"

"Yeah." _Blade runner_. He reached out and took hold of my hand. "What now?"

That was the question, wasn't it?

I knew how to get out of the country—I knew smugglers, here and on the continent—but could I do it with Doyle? And did he want to come?

"Rabbits are good at running," I said, picking up my creation with my free hand.

"Are we rabbits now?"

"We could be."

"Don't dogs hunt rabbits?"

"Not many dogs about, these days." I grinned. "And I'm a very good rabbit."

Doyle stared at me a good long while. When he finally grinned back, I knew we were going to be all right.

I left the rabbit on the kitchen table for Murphy to find, as a gift and a goodbye. 

We were over the Channel in the cargo hold of Marty's hoverjet. I looked over at Doyle. A golden beam of dawn's light sneaking through a narrow window had made a halo of his hair. 

He was bloody beautiful. And mine.

I was going to enjoy being a rabbit.


End file.
